Cannot get negative numbers from URL queries

I am using jersey for developing my controllers and I want to create a URL including negative numbers in URL queries like below

http://ift.tt/1AIPLWL

notice I have included hypen before number to represent it as a negative number. But I am getting default values of data type using @QueryParam("latitude") or @QueryParam("longitude"). Overall, I am not getting data. I am thinking of what could be the reason. Can I send negative number via URL queries? Is there any solution for this? I also tried using ASCII for hypens.